Man, I honestly can't believe I pulled this off, but I completed all 3 YA books in one day. It's been nice just reading and not worrying about anything else.
I have liked all three of the ones I read today, but I've got to say Dress Coded was my favorite. It's got a more unusual format, which includes texting, podcast transcripts, lists and letters mixed between the chapters. It feels more realistic in its chaos.
It's got an obvious theme: girls are being unfairly dress-coded at their middle school and one of them starts a podcast to tell their stories.
There are a lot of disturbing elements here, but each one feels like it could be absolutely true. There's a girl who hides her period-stained pants with her sweatshirt around her waist and is in the hallway in a tank top to get her phone from her locker to call someone to bring her fresh pants. She gets in trouble with the principal and a completely sexist male teacher and even gets the class trip cancelled. This is utterly unreasonable, but definitely sounds like it could be real. There's a black girl with natural hair who gets detention for retaliating after a boy in her class pushes her hair down to get it "out of his way." Not exactly fitting with the dress code, but also definitely believable. And there are loads of other stories.
Also wound through the book is the main character's bad relationship with her vape-addicted older brother and the trouble he brings their family, plus other friend drama.
It's quite well-done and I recommend it. I do recommend all three I read today.
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